M is for Morgan Mandel

Debra wouldn't be where she's at now without her best writing buddy.

I met Morgan at my local RWA chapter meetings. We joined right around the same time and became buddies. For a long while, we carpooled to meetings. Now, since I don't often attend, we keep in touch through e-mail and the occasional lunch or conference.

Morgan published her first book with a small press. After a couple of rejections from 'major' publishers, I decided I needed to do something else if I was really serious about being a published author. I asked Morgan about her publisher. She mentioned she wasn't too happy with them at the moment, but said she'd heard of another small press that was actively acquiring: The Wild Rose Press.


The rest, as they say, is history. I published my first book with them in 2008 and will have four releases with TWRP this year. To say she steered me in the right direction is an understatement.

Since leaving her original small publisher, Morgan has kept writing, opting to enter the world of self-publishing. I give her MAJOR kudos for doing this. I admire anyone who steps up to this challenge: to not only write a book, but take on the over-whelming task of publishing a quality product as well. She's done an amazing job from start to finish and everything in between: writing, editing, creating covers, publicity, etc. I've had the honor of being her beta reader on her last two books, which means I get a sneak peek at her stories before the rest of the world. Being RWA chapter mates, I've also had the privilege of hearing many of her books as first chapters during critique sessions.

Morgan writes in a variety of genres (sweet romance, thriller, suspense) and a variety of lengths from novels to novellas and her back list is extensive and well-rounded.

Her Deerview series is sweet and poignant and includes the titles Christmas Carol and Hailey's Chance: Will Baby Make 3? (so far...I hope there are more to come) and her cute, romantic comedy set provides us with Her Handyman and A Perfect Angel. She offers her collection of short stories from her Forever Young trilogy as a complete anthology and as separate novellas as well. Her debut novel Two Wrongs is a mystery set in Chicago. In addition, she has a stand-alone romantic comedy called Girl of My Dreams and a romantic suspense called Killer Career.

I love her tag line: MORGAN MANDEL - FOR DIVERSITY AND VERSATILITY which is the perfect way to brand herself as the author of multiple genres. She has something for just about every taste.

To find out more about Morgan and her books, pop on over and visit her web-site. http://www.morganmandel.com/

I'm proud to call her a fellow author. And proud to call her a friend.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Today's Friday Friend - Morgan Mandel

Our Friday Friend today, Morgan Mandel, is a former freelancer for the Daily Herald newspaper, prior president of Chicago-North RWA, prior Library Liaison for Midwest MWA, and belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. She enjoys writing thrillers, mysteries, romances and also enjoys combining them. Her latest paranormal romantic thriller is Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, Book One of the Always Young Series, available in Print, also on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and more. Other available novels by Morgan Mandel include the romantic suspense, Killer Career, the mystery, Two Wrongs, and the romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams. Morgan is now working on Book Two of the Always Young Series, called Blessing or Curse: A Forever Young Anthology, where readers will learn what happens to others who have taken the Forever Young pill.  One more book will follow bringing back the original heroine to close out the trilogy.

Would You Take a Trial Medication?

When I was young and living at home, I remember my mother was daring enough to take part in a trial run for a blood pressure medicine.  Since she was always a health conscious person, who even went so far as to serve us raw sugar on our kitchen table instead of the refined type, and never let us drink Kool-Aid, which she called sugar water, now that I’m older I wonder why she agreed to take part in that trial. Did her doctor talk her into it? Or, because our family was so poor, did she do it out of necessity? Fortunately, she didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects that I know about. Maybe it even helped her. I was too young to know all the details.

Dorrie Donato, the newly widowed heroine in my new romantic thriller, Forever Young:  Blessing or Curse, is invited by her husband’s boss to become part of a trial run on a new drug, one much more radical than the one my Mom took. If it worked, Dorrie could change from 55 to 24 and keep on hold at her new age as long as she faithfully took the pill.

Life wasn’t good since she’d lost her husband, Larry. He’d been too much a part of her life to pretend he’d never existed. Also, a bone density test had already shown she had osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis, the disease from which her mother had horribly suffered. Added to that was the fact her thyroid was shot. On a lesser scale, she wasn’t too thrilled about her thickened waist, wrinkles and veins. All those reasons led Dorrie to take the huge step of being a pioneer for a new drug.

Dorrie reverted to that earlier age, but still couldn’t get her husband out of her mind. She’d give up her new life in a flash if she could grow old with him instead, but that was not an option. She must make the best of life without him.

The pill worked remarkably for Dorrie, but then she discovered there are other ways to die besides taking an experimental pill.

I made her desperate enough to take the Forever Young pill; but, being the cautious person I am, I wouldn’t have done so. In fact, I wouldn’t want to take part in any medical trial run. Then again, I live in the real world and not a story book. What about you?  Would you, or have you, taken part in any medical trials?

Forever Young: Blessing or Curse

Fresh beginnings turn tragic when Dorrie Donato’s husband, Larry, is killed in a hit and run accident a few months after starting a new job at the Life is for Living Institute. Discouraged and desperate after suffering countless setbacks, Dorie accepts an offer by  Larry’s boss, the famous Angel Man, to  be the first to test an experimental pill designed to spin its user back to a desired age and hold there, yet still retain all previous memories.  The pill seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.

Thanks for letting me share a little about my Mom and my book, Paula.

It's a pleasure to have you as our guest, Morgan - and you've certainly got me thinking about a 'Forever Young' Pill!

You can find Morgan at

Blog: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Website: http://www.morganmandel.com

Links For All Formats & Excerpts to all of Morgan’s books: http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Friday Friends With Morgan Mandel

I am so excited to bring you this interview with Morgan today. Not only is this the first time I've been the interviewer instead of the interviewee, but Morgan is one of my dearest friends. Without her, I might not be a published author today.

So, without further ado, I'd like to welcome Morgan Mandel to Heroines with Hearts!

1) First, tell us a little about yourself.
At first I freelanced for the Daily Herald newspaper, which I really enjoyed. Still, I had the urge to do more. Realizing I didn’t have enough time to work on a book plus do newspaper features, I gave up freelancing in favor of book writing. I credit my longstanding membership at Chicago-North RWA with helping me achieve my publication goal. I’m also thankful to Chicago-North for the many friendships I formed there, including the one with my good friend, Debra St. John.
I’m also the Library Liaison for Midwest Mystery Writers of America, belong to Sisters in Crime and EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection).

2) What are you working on now?
That’s a loaded question. I’ve got three books going at once and am determined to get at least one of them finished. The one I’m currently concentrating on is my Nanowrimo book from 1 ½ years ago, which I never managed to get done, since at the time I was in the midst of marketing Girl of My Dreams and getting Killer Career started. I’m also working on Forever Young, which is targeted for the Baby Boomer generation, plus a children’s book based on my dog, Rascal.

3) Where do you get your ideas?
Experiences that happen to me in real life worm their way into my subconscious and somehow end up in my manuscripts. Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times, I’m not even aware it’s happened until afterwards when I analyze what I’ve written.

My Nano Book, which so far is called No Way Back, features a young woman who out of desperation becomes a country singer. I’m very much a country music fan, so it was a natural for me to include that in one of my books.

Forever Young has a universal theme of never growing old, and Our Little Rascal is self-explanatory. She’s my dog child.

4) What's the best writing advice you've ever received/read?
Get the book finished. Everyone says that, but it’s still the best and hardest advice to follow. Once the book is done, then it’s time to do the edits and make it shine.

5) What have you learned from being published that you wish you knew before you were published?
There are not enough hours in the day to live a normal life and also pursue a writing career. That said, I keep trying anyway. I enjoy social networking immensely, yet sometimes I have to ignore the Internet and concentrate on getting my WIPs done. No matter which I choose, I feel guilty about ignoring the other.

6) Any advice for new writers?
Be persistent. Keep at it. Use critiques as a springboard to improve your writing, instead of taking them personally. We all have to learn sometime. Not many writers start out knowing what to do right away.

7) You write both romance and mystery/suspense. What's the biggest difference in how you approach each?
If you didn’t see my name on the cover of Girl of My Dreams, I’m not sure if you’d know it was the same person who wrote Two Wrongs and Killer Career. My mysteries definitely have a darker current running through them. It’s fun to write according to my light or dark mood. I’m considering using a new pen name for future romances to make the delineation more obvious.

8) Let us know where we can find you and your books on the web.
Signed print copies plus e-books of my current romantic suspense, Killer Career, about a lawyer whose career change could be a killer, are available at http://digital-bookshop.com .

Killer Career, Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams are also available at Amazon.com, in print and very competitive kindle prices.

You can find me at lots of spots on the web. There are too many to name them all, so I’ll leave you with a sampling. Everyone’s welcome to come over and visit, plus exchange links and writing experiences.

My website is http://www.morganmandel.com, You can find me at Facebook at http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel or http://facebook.com/morganmandelauthor .
I’m on Twitter at http://twitter.com/morganmandel

My personal blog is: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com. I’m also on these group blogs: http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com, http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com, http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com.

Thanks so much for the interview, Debra. I enjoyed sharing my writing experiences with you and your readers.

Morgan, thanks so much for joining us today! It's been such a thrill watching your career blossom, and I'm looking forward to seeing your current projects in print soon!

Readers, please leave a comment for Morgan to let her know you stopped by...